Agam Shah
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Intel scales back Android development
Android was once a big part of Intel's plans in mobile devices, but the company is now paying much less attention to the OS.Intel is moving away from developing Android for x86 processors used in smartphones, since it is exiting the handset market. The company's commitment to Android development for tablets, however, is also under question.The company still has a strong partnership with Google, with an Intel spokeswoman saying in email, "We continue to work with Google on supporting their OS for different product lines including Chromebooks, tablets and IOT products."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Like smartphones, IoT communications going long distance
The world's newest mobile telecoms network went into operation this week, but it's not for smartphones. The network, built by South Korea's SK Telecom, is dedicated to gadgets that connect to the so-called internet of things.Today, most of those devices communicate over Bluetooth or WiFi, which are low power but short range, or over conventional cellular, which has better coverage but is more expensive and consumes more power.The Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) network built in South Korea is deployed over the unlicensed 900MHz spectrum, and is based on specifications from the LoRa Alliance.SK Telecom has set up an IoT data plan much like smartphone contracts. The cheapest plan is priced at 350 Korean Won (US$0.30) for 100KB of data transfers, and it is targeted at metering and monitoring services. The most expensive plan is targeted at real-time monitoring, and is priced at 2,000 Korean Won (US$1.75) for 100MB of data. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Dell stops selling Android devices
Dell has stopped selling Android devices as it steps away from slate-style tablets to focus on Windows 2-in-1 devices.The company isn't refreshing the Venue line of Android tablets, and will no longer offer the Android-based Wyse Cloud Connect, a thumb-size computer that can turn a display into a PC. Other Android devices were discontinued some time ago."The slate tablet market is over-saturated and is experiencing declining demand from consumers, so we’ve decided to discontinue the Android-based Venue tablet line," a Dell spokesman said in an e-mail.Though Dell has killed its Android devices, it made interesting products with the OS. One was the Venue 8 7000 tablet, which had an OLED screen and a 3D RealSense camera. Meanwhile, 2-in-1s can serve as both tablets and laptops.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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HP sells PCs in a new way as it tries to speed up upgrades
As the PC upgrade cycle slows down, HP is making a new devices-and-services pitch in an effort to revive sales. HP's device-as-a-service program, announced Thursday, gives companies the option of buying PCs, support and services via a monthly charge instead of paying for everything upfront.With many businesses waiting five or six years to upgrade PCs, the new plan could push users to refresh hardware at a faster pace. The offering is similar to the software-as-a-service model popularized by software companies. It's like renting a PC and paying in installments, but with added benefits. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Qualcomm wants to bring LTE to more IoT devices
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are common in battery-powered sensor devices, but Qualcomm wants to also make LTE a common feature in such devices.Qualcomm makes some of the most advanced modems for mobile devices, but the company is now tuning them for Internet of Things devices by lowering power consumption and improving performance.The latest MDM9207-1 modem chipset, announced last year, is now available from the chip-maker. It is part of the MDM9x07 chipset family, for which Qualcomm has secured 100 design wins, although some of those products may not ultimately ship. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Use Android apps on HP’s upcoming $189 Chromebook 11 G5
If you're looking for alternatives to Windows laptops, there's a new incentive to consider Chromebooks: some of them can run Android apps.And if you're looking for such a device under $200, HP just announced its Chromebook 11 G5. The entry-level laptop starts at $189 and offers 12.5 hours of battery life.The laptop is available with or without a touchscreen. Just as touchscreens are used for smartphone and tablet apps, touch capabilities are important in running many Android apps, and more Chromebooks could have touchscreens going forward.You could, however, still use Android productivity apps and software like Skype on the non-touch version of the Chromebook 11 G5, which will have access to the Google Play store, HP said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Should Microsoft release a successor to Surface 3?
Microsoft will stop manufacturing Surface 3 by the end of the year, which raises a big question: Will there be a Surface 4?The company has declined to say whether a Surface 4 will ever be released. But Microsoft says it saw strong demand for the Surface 3 tablet PC, so releasing a successor seems like a no-brainer.But the PC market is challenged. Upgrades have slowed down to every five or six years, and tablet shipments -- with the exception of 2-in-1s -- are declining. PC makers are already releasing innovative products that could be viable options to a Surface 3 successor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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A Raspberry Pi 3 competitor will boast an SSD storage slot
You can't put SSDs on the Raspberry Pi 3, but a competitive board coming soon will have that option.The new MinnowMax Turbot Dual-E board will have an m.2 slot in which SSDs can be inserted. It's being made by ADI Engineering and will be released in the third quarter, according to a message on Twitter.The board's price wasn't immediately available.High-capacity SSD chips up to 512GB can be found on sites like NewEgg. But the MinnowMax board's SSD storage capacity will ultimately depend on the device's hardware specifications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Seagate targets storage for drones and robots
Seagate is targeting drones and robots as it looks to add its storage technologies to new devices. "There's a huge opportunity there," said Patrick Ferguson, a product manager at Seagate. "I'm really excited about it." Manufacturers make drones easy to fly, but storage isn't a heavy consideration, Ferguson said. Robots and drones generate a lot of data, but have limited internal storage to retain all that information. For example, drones with multiple cameras generate a lot of video, but just one CompactFlash or SD card to store all that data may not be enough. "In a 20 minute flight you're talking hundreds of gigabytes, not tens of gigabytes," Ferguson said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Battle lines are drawn: IBM prepares Power9 to take on Intel and ARM
IBM has many goals with its upcoming Power9 chip, and one is to challenge the dominance of Intel's x86 chips in the data center.The company wants chips based on Power architecture to take a double-digit server chip market share by 2020, Doug Balog, general manager for Power Systems at IBM, said in an interview.It'll be a three-way battle between x86, Power, and ARM, which has a similar goal of a double-digit market share in the next four years. IBM's Power is off to a better start in terms of socket share, Balog said. IBM already is being used in servers, while ARM server processors are largely still being tested.Intel dominates the data center server chip market with a 90-plus percent market share. But IDC has predicted that Intel's share will shrink as ARM-based chips and AMD's x86-based Zen take away some of that lead.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IBM wants to sell Power servers based on OpenCompute designs
IBM is warming up to the idea of adding servers using its Power processors and the OpenCompute open design to its product portfolio."I'm going to bring OpenCompute servers into my portfolio at some point so that I'm offering directly to the marketplace if there's a demand for it," said Doug Balog, general manager for Power Systems at IBM.An OpenCompute-based Power server will be based on open designs, and provide an alternative to IBM's integrated systems like PurePower. It'll also provide customers more flexibility on the components used inside systems.A Power-based OpenCompute server will also be an alternative to open server designs based on x86 chips. One target for such Power servers is hyperscale vendors, who may be looking for an alternative to Intel chips, which now dominate data centers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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HPE looks to move data between computers at the speed of light
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is turning to lights and lasers in thin fiber optics as a way to move data at blazing speeds between computers, replacing thicker and slower copper wires.A motherboard with an optical module, shown by HPE at its recent Discover show, could transfer data at a staggering 1.2 terabits per second. That's enough for the transfer of a full day's worth of HD video in one second.The data transfer speed is much quicker than any existing networking and connector technology based on copper wires today. It could replace copper Ethernet cables that are widely used in data centers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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HPE looks to move data between computers at the speed of light
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is turning to lights and lasers in thin fiber optics as a way to move data at blazing speeds between computers, replacing thicker and slower copper wires.A motherboard with an optical module, shown by HPE at its recent Discover show, could transfer data at a staggering 1.2 terabits per second. That's enough for the transfer of a full day's worth of HD video in one second.The data transfer speed is much quicker than any existing networking and connector technology based on copper wires today. It could replace copper Ethernet cables that are widely used in data centers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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HPE shows off a computer intended to emulate the human brain
Intelligent computers that can make decisions like humans may someday be on Hewlett Packard Enterprise's product roadmap.The company has been showing off a prototype computer designed to emulate the way the brain makes calculations. It's based on a new architecture that could define how future computers work.The brain can be seen as an extremely power-efficient biological computer. Brains take in a lot of data related to sights, sounds and smell, which they have to process in parallel without lagging, in terms of computation speed.HPE's ultimate goal is to create computer chips that can compute quickly and make decisions based on probabilities and associations, much like how the brain operates. The chips will use learning models and algorithms to deliver approximate results that can be used in decision-making.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Asus challenges the iPad Mini with the less-pricey ZenPad Z8
At $249.99, Asus' new Android-based ZenPad Z8 tablet could make you ponder why you should buy Apple's iPad Mini 4, which starts at $399.The Asus tablet will be available exclusively through Verizon Wireless, and will ship starting on June 23. It is ready for Verizon's LTE network in the U.S, and can be ordered online.The cellular-ready ZenPad Z8 will come with the latest Android version, Android M OS. A cellular-ready version of the iPad Mini 4 starts at $529.From a pure hardware standpoint, the Android tablet is comparable, and in some respects, offers more than than the iPad Mini 4. It ultimately comes down to whether you want Android or iOS on this sort of device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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BeagleBone board gets long-overdue Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities
Before Raspberry Pi rocked the world of makers, boards from BeagleBoard.org were the computers of choice among developers who were looking to create cool gadgets.One of its boards, BeagleBone, isn't as popular as it used to be, but it still has a loyal following. Seeed Studios has taken a version of the open-source board and given it a much-needed wireless upgrade, adding Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.The BeagleBone Green Wireless is a significant improvement over predecessors: among other things it now allows makers to add wireless capabilities to smart home devices, wearables, health monitors and other gadgets. The upgrade also brings BeagleBone into the Internet of Things era, in which wirelessly interconnected devices are constantly exchanging data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Linux gaming poised for a boost with new hardware, Vulkan graphics
For decades, Windows has remained the gaming platform of choice for PC users. Linux gaming has suffered from poor hardware support and lack of titles, but that could slowly change. Hardware upgrades, including faster GPUs and CPUs, are poised to improve Linux gaming. The latest gaming titles will come to Linux much faster with Vulkan, a graphics technology that should drive gaming forward on the OS. At E3 this week, Dell announced new Linux-based Alienware Steam Machines gaming PCs with Intel's latest Skylake CPUs and Nvidia GTX 960 GPUs. The catalog of top-line titles -- also called AAA titles -- for the Linux-based SteamOS will grow by the end of the year, said Chris Sutphen, senior marketing manager at Alienware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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After a slow start, Dell turns up the dial on Steam Machines
Dell had high hopes for the Alienware Steam Machine after its delayed release last year, but it did not become as popular as its twin, Alienware Alpha, a Windows-based PC gaming console.The viability of Steam Machines, a family of Linux-based PC gaming consoles with SteamOS, has been questioned, but Dell isn't giving up yet. With better hardware and an expanding list of gaming titles, Dell is hoping that interest in Alienware Steam Machines will grow.The Steam Machine's rectangular console is based on a concept design from Valve, the world's largest independent game distributor. At the E3 show this week, Dell is announcing Steam Machines with faster graphics processors and chips. The systems will start shipping this week. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lenovo’s Phab2 Pro will be the first Google Project Tango AR smartphone
Lenovo's new Phab2 Pro, developed with Google, brings augmented reality to smartphone screens without the need for a headset. The device, which has a 6.4-inch screen, pushes smartphone functionality to new heights. The giant display presents a wealth of information that changes how people interact with the physical world around them. The smartphone, based on Google's Project Tango computer vision technology, will ship worldwide in August for US $499, Lenovo announced Thursday. It's loaded with cutting-edge sensors, cameras, and a Snapdragon 652 processor from Qualcomm. The device can be used to measure distances, recognize items, map locations, and provide real-time indoor navigation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How Intel plans to change servers as it breaks away from PCs
From PCs to servers, Intel is trying to redesign the way computers operate. We've already seen how PCs are changing, with 2-in-1 hybrids and tiny Compute Sticks, but some of the chip maker's groundbreaking technologies will initially appear in servers.The PC market is in decline, and the chipmaker has cut unprofitable products like smartphone chips. Intel is redirecting more resources to develop server and data-center products, which are already money makers for the company. Intel is also focusing on markets like the Internet of Things, memory, silicon photonics, and FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), all of which have ties to the fast-growing data center business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here